It’s been a fun journey over the past 5 years creating Firefox themes. I created nearly a dozen themes, stating with iPox, and I’ve got over 5 million downloads! However, I just can’t keep up.

With Firefox 4 just around the corner, my themes would probably need to be revamped from the ground up and I just don’t have the time. Heck, some of theme aren’t even updated for Firefox 3.6!

It’s a hard decision to make though as I loved creating them. I loved making the fans happy and I wish I could keep up with them.

I’ve got other things going on that are a better use of my time so I’m saying goodbye to Firefox themes.

So what’s going to happen to the themes? Good question!

At this point and time they’ll remain as they are. No updates, no development.

If you’re a Firefox themer, I’d be open to discussing letting you take them over and continuing their creation. The only thing I ask is that you keep the integrity of the themes intact.

I gave iAqua away years ago and it found a nice home. I was happy to see it continue to live on with a new developer.

extero also went to the same developer, however it turned into a completely different theme and extero as I knew it disappeared.

It’s hard for me to give my themes to a new developer as I worry that they’ll turn them into something that I don’t like. Then again, I have to get over that as it’s their theme now and it’s better to live on then fade away into nothingness.

If you’re waiting for me to update one of my themes, it’s sad to say, but it’ll probably never happen. Then again, I may pull a Brett Favre. You never know, but I doubt it.

It’s been a great journey and everyone who downloaded my themes rock! It was a lot of fun and I’ll miss it.

Thank You!

I’m retiring from Firefox theming. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The bad news is that my themes are currently NOT compatiblewith Firefox 3.6. I tested it out the other day and nothing happened. No error, no theme, no luck.

The good news is I was able to find out why and fix it. I had to re-do the theme structure and install files but I did get it to work. If you are using iPox Remix as the basis of your theme, you’ll need to make the updates as well. I hope to have a how-to on that soon.

iPox has been submitted to Mozilla with 3.6 compatibly and some bug fixes. Hopefully that’ll be live sooner than later.

Tinseltown is next up on the list to fix. With Christmas basically here, fixing Tinseltown is a high priority.

Once you upgrade to Firefox 3.6 don’t be alarmed if my themes don’t work. I’m working on them as I get time and you’ll hopefully see them soon.

Firefox 3.6 Theme Compatibly originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

There are no major issues, but there are some minor ones. Like the bottom part of the scrollbar is missing and secure pages don’t render the secure part of the URL bar.  I consider these to be pretty minor overall, but do hope to fix the annoyances.

Since Firefox 3.5 is well on its way to being released in June, I thought it was high time I get a few updates in.

I have a lot more to talk about when it comes to my themes and Firefox, but those posts will be coming in the months ahead.

Also, if you use MidnightFox or MidnightFoxy, new versions have been uploaded to Mozilla’s Addon site to fix some status bar and form field bugs. Look for them coming your way via Firefox’s addon updates soon.

My Themes and Firefox 3.5 originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Here is what is new in the most recent version.

• New scrollbars featuring bones.  Jack Skellington is the Bone Daddy after all.
• New right click menus featuring orange options with green highlights.
• New tabs that should resemble grave stones.
• New creepy fence background for the bookmarks toolbar and other toolbars.
• New light up pumpkin throbber.
• Added a bit of orange to the find bar background.
• Cleaned up the big back button as there was some minor issues that only I probably saw.
• Green highlight when the URL or search bar is active.

That’s the bulk of what was updated.  I wanted to take HalloFF farther away from MidnightFox and have it stand on it’s own and I think I accomplished that.  I hope others like the updates as much as I do.

Please Note: If you get a -228 error when trying to download, that’s an error with Mozilla’s servers and I have alerted them.  Hopefully they fix it soon.

Halloween Firefox Theme Gets Another Upgrade originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

It’s a dark theme with quite a few elements shared with MidnightFox, however, the buttons are orange with green rollovers and Jack Skellington shows his face a few times throughout the theme.

Enjoy this little Halloween treat from me to you!

HalloFF Reborn for Firefox 3 in Time for Halloween! originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Check out these stats!

Miint
Total downloads since April 8th 2007: 234,303
Active Daily Users on Wednesday September 3rd: 35,425

PinkHope
Total downloads since January 29th 2007: 530,214
Active Daily Users on Wednesday September 3rd: 80,814

iPox
Total downloads since January 4th 2006: 1,479,462
Active Daily Users on Wednesday September 3rd: 79,518

MidnightFox
Total downloads since March 30th 2006: 1,960,530
Active Daily Users on Wednesday September 3rd: 166,482

This is only a sampling of the themes I have available, but all represented above are available for Firefox 3.  Knowing that so many people enjoy my themes makes me happy.

Thank You!!!

Why I Love Theming Firefox originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

I’ve recently got a few comments from a visitor saying “hurry up and release the f**king theme” and “do your f**king job.”

Now I know that there is bound to be one jerk out of hundreds of users, but it’s comments like these that make me wonder why I continue to spend my time on themes.  It’s not my job and, the more negative comments I get, the slower my progress will be.  These things take hours to build and there is a lot to take into consideration.

On the other hand I’ve gotten a lot of comments recently about people who are so passionate about Miint that they’d switch back to Firefox 2 until it was ready for Firefox 3.  These kind of comments drive me.  They are not yelling at me but encouraging me to spend more time theming.  And the good news is, Miint for Firefox 3 has come along way in just two and a half hours.

What I’m trying to point out here is that when you don’t pay for something, you should not demand updates and start swearing at developers.  We do this because we want to, because we love to, not because we have to.

Give a little respect to those that create free addons, themes and free software in general.

Why I would quit theming today. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

With the Firefox 3 release upon us, a lot of people will be wondering about the status of my themes.

So what is the status?

Currently, I have started work on iPox.  It’s looking pretty nice and it has advanced a bit from the current Firefox 2 version.  However, it’s a complete re-write.  I started from scratch and have a lot of editing to do.

To help me prioritize the order of other theme updates, please vote for which theme you’d like to see updated sooner rather than later. I do have a vague idea for the order that I’m going to work on them, but the votes could sway my decision.

Poll Closed

Notes: iPox is not in the poll as it’s going to be completed first.  You may also vote for up to two.

I don’t have a release date on iPox yet and the other themes are a ways off.  Unfortunately, I haven’t yet found an easy way to transfer a theme from Firefox 2 to Firefox 3.

I do plan on continuing to theme and getting everyone converted over.  It’s just a matter of time.

TwisterMc Themes and Firefox 3 – Vote for your favorite. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

I was presently surprised this morning to see that HalloFF has been approved and made live on the Mozilla Addon’s site. I hadn’t gotten notification so I’m not sure when it went live. None the less, HalloFF fans rejoice!

HalloFF is my MidnightFox mod that brings Jack Skellington into the mix. It features blacks, oranges and a bit of green. Originally created just for Halloween, but some users want to have it all year around.

Enjoy!!

HalloFF Rises From The Dead originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Not only do I have an all new theme to offer but just about everyone will get some sort of an update. Some long overdue, some just minor things.

I’ve been working on a brand new theme for a few weeks now if not longer. It’s not completed, but it’s in a good spot. So a release should be coming up sometime in March.

I also have a few pieces of news regarding iPox. Not only is there a new version, but I have an idea to make most everyone happy. Keep checking back for those announcements.

HalloFF should make a return in March as well. It’s my Halloween theme with Jack Skelingtion and it seems to have a fan base that lasts all year long.

That’s right, March will be full of Firefox themes with at least three theme releases, one of which is brand spanking new. How exciting is that?

Month of the Firefox Themes originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Basically, just fill in a few fields, hit submit and I’ll be notified via email. It’s that easy. It’s even got a developer comments area where I can respond to any issues.

Thanks to ZoHo for creating an easy to use, and very powerful, online application for collecting and organizing data.

Themes Bug Tracker Online originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Enjoy HalloFF – a Halloween Firefox Theme (for Firefox 1.5 only)!

Update: Click the link above for the most updated version. Mozilla won’t approve it because it won’t work with FF2 even though I submitted it a week or more before FF2 was released.

HalloFF Released – Sort of. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

HalloFF is a little bit of iPox, a little bit of MidnightFox, a little bit of Hallo and some Nightmare Before Christmas characters all thrown together, mixed up and ouput into a new theme. It hasn’t gone though a lot of testing or quaility checking, but since Halloween is so close, that’s hard to do.

Check HalloFF out and let me now what you think.

To Install:

1. Download HalloFF
2. Open Firefox’s theme’s window and drag HalloFF.jar into the themes window.
3. Right click on the theme in Firefox’s theme window and select ‘use theme’.
4. Restart Firefox.

Note: I have no auto update feature built in so you’ll have to check every now and then to see if there is a new version.

Update: 10/7 – Minor edits but realized it hate’s Sage and I don’t know why.

HalloFF Halloween Theme for Firefox 1.5.x – Testing originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com